Golden Hawks win Friendship Tournament
The Thorburn Midget C1 Golden Hawks captured gold in the second annual Nick Merrill and Corey Bates Friendship Tournament.
Playing with only 13 skaters and two goalies on the weekend, they went undefeated in roundrobin play.
A stormy drive Friday to Amherst didn’t stop them from competing hard all weekend. In the first game, Thorburn faced one of the two Midget C teams from the host organization, a close battle as Thorburn led 1-0 late before a power outage led to the game having to be finished the next night. The game was resumed Saturday evening before their final round robin game and the final score was 2-0, with Wesley Kelly getting the shutout in nets and player of the game award. Scoring for Thorburn were Skyler Coady and Logan Butler.
In the second game (Saturday morning in Oxford), the Hawks defeated Sydney Steelers 4-2, with Bryce Thomsen getting player of the game honours and Tanner MacIvor playing a strong solid game in nets. Scoring for the Golden Hawks were Thomsen with two and Tyler Foote and
Matt Munroe with singles.
The third game had Thorburn up against the second Midget C team from Amherst and in a competitive game the Hawks won 5-3, with Kelly getting the win in nets again. Scoring for the Golden Hawks were Foote with two, Charlie MacLean, Coady and Thomsen with singles.
In going 3-0 in the round robin, Thorburn advanced automatically to the championship game. And due to a forfeit and unsportsmanlike
play by one of the hosting team, the Sydney Steelers advanced to the semifinals, at which point they beat the Riverview Blues.
In the first period, Foote opened the scoring, with MacLean adding a second goal and Thorburn led 2-0 after the first period.
The Steelers replied early in the second to tie the contest, but not for long: the Hawks’ Keegan Martin scored to bring the lead to two again. But the Steelers didn’t give
up and replied with two goals to even the game, making for a real nail-biter for all spectators.
The Hawks came hard in the third and put two goals on the board from MacLean and Matt Munroe before Sydney replied with a power play goal. The Steelers would pull their goalie but it wasn’t enough, as Thorburn won 5-4 to capture the banner.
Player of the game was MacLean, MacIvor and Kelly shared the win in goal.